A MEMBER of the House committee on transportation on Sunday supported the call for a new information technology provider for the Land Transportation Office.
AKO Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe reacted to the settlement of disputes between the Land Transportation office through the Department of Transportation and Stradcom Corp. thus clearing the way for the government to search for a new IT provider.
“So long as the government can get more favorable terms and conditions compared to the old provider, then it is always worth to phase out the old [one],” he told the Manila Standard.
Last December, DoTr agreed to pay its P8-billion debt to Stradcom. Both parties signed a one-year phaseout agreement and allowed the government to tap a new IT provider.
A public transport group, the Transport Watch, lauded the move of the DoTr to end its legal disputes with Stradcom, welcome a public bidding and find a better data provider.
“The public is now assured of better services at the LTO,” Transport Watch convenor Tirso Paglicawan said.
Batocabe, however, said “but then, if the result is just to get a new provider with the same terms and conditions, Congress should exercise its oversight functions and look into this questionable deal.”
In 2011, the bid for the P8.2-billion LTO’s IT sytem was ordered, and that in 2012, the transportation department split the contract into two due to bidders’ failure to qualify for the contract’s broad scope.
The bidding was then delayed over the Quezon City Regional Trial Court’s issuance of a temporary restraining order due to internal ownership disputes in Stradcom.
In February 2013, Stradcom’s contract expired while the TRO was still in effect.
Stradcom was the LTO’s data system provider since 1998.
